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“I do,” Grath assured her. “What Idon’tsee is what any of this has to do with that male in the park.”
“That was Luke Hartsford,” Madeline said. “He asked me to go with him to the Prom my senior year—I’m pretty sure one of the popular girls put him up to it,” she added.
“What’s a ‘Prom?’” Grath asked, trying to get the details straight.
“Oh—it’s kind of a big dance party,” Madeline explained. “Also kind of a rite of passage—a sign that you’re moving from adolescence into adulthood.”
“And what happened at this ‘Prom’?” Grath could hear the growl creeping into his voice but he couldn’t quite help it. She was going to tell him how she had been hurt—and who had hurt her. As her Protector, that was hard to hear. But he knew she needed to tell it—needed to get rid of this old pain that had been gnawing at her for years.
“Well, first of all, I could hardly believe that someone like Luke wanted to go with someone like me,” she said in a low voice. “I was sure he was going to stand me up—leave me waiting for him, I mean,” she added, explaining the Earth idiom for him.
“But he didn’t?” Grath asked, frowning.
She shook her head.
“No. He came to the house. He picked me up. Acted like the perfect gentlemen—he…he fooled my mom and dad completely.”
Grath felt a jab in his heart as she spoke the words. Wasn’t that whathewas doing—fooling her parents,pretendingto love her?
It’s not pretend,whispered a little voice inside him.It’s all true—you just can’t let her know it.
“Go on,” he said, trying to push past his own guilt and concentrate on her story. “Did something happen at the, uh, Prom?”
She nodded.
“I…I think Luke spiked my drink. Luckily, I didn’t like the taste of alcohol—I still don’t, very much—so I barely sipped the cocktail he bought me. But I got enough to get really woozy. The Prom was being held at this big hotel in the next city over—Hampton Falls—it’s way bigger than Christmasville. Anyway, Luke had rented a room for the night and he dragged me up there, stumbling and stuttering, because of the drink. The next thing I knew…” She took a deep breath and Grath sensed they were getting to the bad part.
“Go on, little girl—when you’re ready,” he murmured.
“The next thing I knew, I was on the bed and Luke was leaning over me,” she went on at last. “He was…was fumbling with my dress—he already had the top part open so he could feel my breasts. I remember feeling so confused—wondering where the dance floor had gone to and why was he doing this to me?”
“I thought you said hedidn’trape you.” The growl was out now, reverberating through his chest, but he couldn’t help it. It was fucking difficult to hear this—to know how that bastard had hurt the female he cared for!
“He didn’t,” she said, lifting her chin. “But I’m pretty sure he would have, if I had taken even one more sip of that drink. If I had, I would have been out cold and he could have…” She swallowed hard. “Could have done anything he wanted to me.”
“The fuckingbastard,”Grath growled.
“Yes, he is,” Madeline agreed wholeheartedly. “Anyway, he started fumbling with the bottom of my dress. He pushed it up and he started…” She swallowed hard and Grath heard the dry click in her throat. “Started trying to put himself inside me.”
Grath could hardly stand to hear this, but he owed it to her to listen to the end.
“What happened? How did you get away?” he asked harshly.
“Just then someone started banging on the door to the hotel room,” Madeline told him. “I honestly don’t know who it was—classmates? Room service? A maid? Whoever it was, theysavedme. As soon as Luke got off me and went to open the door, I was able to roll off the bed and run under his arm to get away.”
“Gods!” Grath let out a breath he hadn’t been aware he was holding. “Thank the Goddess you managed to get free of that bastard!”
Madeline nodded.
“I did get free. I straightened myself up and called my sister to come take me home. So I got away, but what happened at the Prom isn’t the worst part.”
“What? How can nearly getting raped not be the worst part?” Grath demanded. “Whatwasthe worst part, then?”
She took a deep, shaky breath.
“The next day at school, I tried to tell someone in authority what had happened.” She closed her eyes, as though remembering the painful conversation. “I tried to tell but…they wouldn’t believe me.”
“What? Who did you tell?” Grath demanded.
